A DIY Magic Bullet Blender

I got this idea from the most recent Yes! Magazine on things that you can do with mason jars that don’t have a whole lot to do with canning. I was pretty excited when I saw this, that I immediately set the magazine down and tried it out. It worked.

my very own mini blender

Same size threads as a mason jar

It seems that the base of most standard sized blenders have the same threads as a mason jar, so you can remove the base from your giant blender, screw it onto the jar, and you have your very own “Magic Bullet”

Travel Log: Vegas 2012 and the rules of the game

As if the excitement of gambling wasn’t enough, Janelle and I came up with our own rules for a game where we compete against each other with slot machines.

Yes, we were there for educational purposes. Yes, we were there to learn. Yes, we gambled.

We went to the NCTE conference during the day, hung out at night. We met a couple of friends who were also there for the conference, and we ate at Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant at the MGM. It was a really fun time. We got to screen a pilot episode of a pretty stupid TV show and give our opinions. I wasn’t kind. I walked the strip several times, and bought the best shoes I’ve ever owned (and the most expensive!)

My neck and shoulder were killing me the entire trip, I’m pretty sure it’s due to the all of the cramped flights. But no complaints, because I always remember the best parts.

Matt and Janelle | August 2013 – Our trip southwest

See the post on our website, with a bunch of pictures:

http://mattjanelle.wordpress.com/2013/08/16/august-2013-our-trip-southwest/

Day One – Erie to West Virginia – Camping at Bee Run Recreational Area in Sutton, WV. Every single campground we stayed at (except for the KOA) said “No alcohol” so we had to sneak our beer. Every time. Kinda made it fun.

Day Two – From Sutton to Nashville, TN. Drive took all day, so we just slept and drove.

Day Three – Toured Nashville, ate some lunch, watched some live music and had a couple of beers. (Three beers and two shots in downtown nashville was $26.00) Moved on to Memphis, TN. Slept at Meman-Shelby Park in Memphis.

Day Four – Woke up and toured Memphis, at lunch on Beale Street. Drove to New Orleans, LA, and set up at a KOA, then drove to downtown New Orleans and walked Bourbon Street. Had pizza and margaritas on Bourbon Street, then went into a club and watched a cool blues band and had a couple more beers.

Day Five – Drove the scenic route all along the Gulf of Mexico (On the Gulf drive, a giant rock hit our window and cracked it, so we made an appointment in Houston to get our windshield replaced) and into Port Arthur, TX. This is the first time I have taken a vehicle onto a ferry, just before the Texas, Louisiana line. Slept on the beach at Sea Rim State Park. We got our car stuck in the sand on the beach and had to get towed onto harder sand the next morning. A bit stressful, but the stay was still beautiful.

Day Six – Drove into Houston to get our windshield repaired, then to Corpus Christie, TX, where we stayed on the beach again at Mustang Island State Park. This time we parked in a parking lot and walked to our campsite on the beach. It is really awesome to fall asleep to the sound of ocean waves.

Day Seven – Drove to San Antonio, TX and stayed in a hotel to take real showers and try to get the sand out of everything. It was an Extended Stay hotel, so Janelle cooked us an awesome pasta dinner and we watched Dawn of the Dead on SyFy.

Day Eight – Worked at a Starbucks in San Antonio, the drove to Luckenbach, TX. There was live music going on, and after talking to the musicians, we were asked to come up on stage, so we each sang a song. That was an amazing experience. We drove through Waco and into Fairfield, and stayed at Fairfield Lake State Park.

Day Nine – Fairfield to Tulsa, OK. Stayed in a hotel in Tulsa, across from Oral Roberts University. That was a little creepy, with the giant hands statue and all. Went to a Mediterranean restaurant (Helen of Troy) in Tulsa.

Day Ten – Tulsa to St. Louis, MO. Stopped to visit and take pictures of the Gateway Arch. Janelle saw a little side street with bars, so we walked there and had dinner and drinks at Hannegan’s Restaurant and Bar. Drove a little further towards home and found a motel.

Day Eleven – Drove all day, then home sweet home.

via Matt and Janelle | August 2013 – Our trip southwest.

Like a wagon wheel – in Luckenback, TX

We had a pretty musical vacation this year. We started by following the course of the song Wagon Wheel (which is currently the only song in iTunes on my phone) – passing through Johnson City and Cumberland Gap. We stopped in Nashville, Memphis, and New Orleans before we landed on a beach in Corpus Christie, TX. On the way from the Gulf to Dallas, I specifically wanted to visit Luckenbach, mostly because of the song that I have known since childhood.

We had a drink at the bar, and heard some live music outside – which turned out to be a “guitar circle”, so anyone could play. Since nobody was playing except for the guys running it, we decided it would be really cool to play there. We stayed a couple hours and had a lot of fun, but I’m mostly excited about having that experience under my belt. I just wish they had a piano!

Ehhhxcellent…Meh heh heh.

Excellent. Meh heh heh

heh heh heh…

In Tulsa, we stayed across from Oral Roberts University. It was an interesting hotel experience – at one point we needed a corkscrew for our wine, and we called the front desk. They had one – I mean one! – and handed it to us. The lady said, “Please don’t tell anyone we gave this to you.” Weird.

So, the big ORU sports a gigantic statue of praying hands, which is creepy in itself, and a little extravagant for a religion that tells you to feed the poor. I assumed they were praying hands, but Janelle pointed out that they looked more like Mr. Burns’ (of Simpsons fame) hands.

Toilet seats and other personalities

Although I wasn’t able to see any attractions while I was in San Antonio, TX, I did check out my Trip Advisor app to see what was around me. I was surprised to discover that there was a toilet seat museum. That’s AMAZING! Another thing that life has to offer if you open up your eyes and look around.

I checked out the reviews to see why this was a five-star attraction on Trip Advisor, and it seems that the attraction is secondary to the owner himself, Barney Smith. People were raving about his personality and how special it was just to be around him.

One thing that I have long held true in the art of being human is that people are interested in people. I could be an amazing magician and have a lousy personality and nobody will really care about my show. I wouldn’t be memorable. The same holds true with a toilet seat museum. I can imagine that if you had no personality you wouldn’t be able to keep an attraction like that open for long, or in the very least you wouldn’t be making any money.

Barney Smith is making his oddball museum a success because of Barney Smith, not because of some decorated toilet seats. Card tricks, toilet seats, and everything else under the sun are simply good excuses for people to relate to one another, and nothing more. It’s not about what we usually think it’s about.

The Tennessee witch project

Camping in the woods of mid Tennessee, we decided that it would be a good idea to burn an apple core so we didn’t attract critters. This had the opposite effect, as we were immediately surrounded by some persistent raccoons.

They kept coming a little too close for comfort so I gathered a bunch of stones to toss at them as they got closer. This worked wonders. (No animals were harmed during the writing of this post!!!! Just scared a bit.)

When it came time to retire to the tent, I dumped the stones out of my pockets and put them in front of the tent. Good idea except that as soon a the stones were down, I couldn’t get “The Blair Witch Project” out of my head. This didn’t make for comforting sleep at all. Solitude in the middle of a large woods is not peaceful if you keep thinking of that movie.

On a side note, I left the tent to use the bathrooms later and saw that the raccoons did indeed attain their goal. The burnt apple was gone.

Travel Log: March 2012 journey south – and our engagement! Part 5

Next stop, Savannah, GA. We really only had time to do one thing here, as it was the same day as St. Augustine. We decided to go on a ghost tour. This was pretty amazing, since, according to our tour guide, we were seeing the “most haunted” everything in Savannah. Very fun though, and memorable.